Jedi Force “Jabba’s Palace Rescue” Adventure Pack by Hasbro

August 8, 2013

It’s been about six months since I first posted about this set, and it’s finally starting to become available in stores. So far I haven’t found it available online anywhere but eBay and third-party sellers on Amazon (meaning that you’ll probably be paying as much as double the $19.99 suggested retail if you absolutely have to have it now). I found this set at my local Target, however. Strangely they only had one of these, but four of the “Death Star Escape” set. I’m not sure what to make of that.

“Jedi Force” is the replacement for the Galactic Heroes line, although some Galactic Heroes can still be found in stores. It reuses a lot of the same vehicles and some of the same figures as Galactic Heroes. In this set, they’ve reused the Jabba and Gamorrean Guard from the Jabba’s Palace Cinema Scene, and the Han in Carbonite that was available in a three-pack with Boushh and Han (there was also a Han in Carbonite released with the Slave 1 Cinema Scene, but that one is thinner.) I guess some reuse is okay, although it would have been nice to see a new Jabba. The Han in Carbonite also seems strange because it’s considerably smaller than the Han Solo figure that comes in the set (Jedi Force figures are taller than Galactic Heroes).

These sets are quite nicely designed, with Jabba on a cardboard throne with an archway behind him, although I’m not sure where they got the window with the scrolled iron work from. It would look more at home in a gothic church than Jabba’s Palace.

Galactic Heroes Jabba (L) and Jedi Force Jabba (R)

The Gamorrean has some minor differences in paint work (the metal pieces of the armor seem darker for example) but it’s pretty similar. Jabba, on the other hand, is painted very differently than the Galactic Heroes version. At first I thought he was cast in a different color plastic, and in these photos the Jedi Force one does look greener.

Jedi Force Jabba the Hutt

But the difference in color isn’t as big in real life, and I believe it’s mostly due to the fact that they didn’t use a brown wash over the figure like they did with the Galactic Heroes version. That also means that you can’t see the details as well on the Jedi Force version. They’ve also painted more of his body in the example above, with the tan paint extending to the tail area, and that may add to the illusion that his green parts are greener than before. (The one in the boxed image above doesn’t have quite as much paint on it, leading me to believe that there’s a fair amount of variation between figures). One other difference is that they made his arm tattoo red, while it was more of a tan on the previous version. Generally the simpler paint job makes it look cheaper than the Galactic Heroes version.

Galactic Heroes Jabba the Hutt

Overall, it’s a nice little set, especially if you don’t have the Galactic Heroes versions. But I should mention that at $20 (or $16.99 at Target) for 5 figures plus Jabba, it isn’t as good of a deal as the Galactic Heroes sets were. The Jabba’s Palace Cinema Scene came with 8 figures plus Jabba and a larger cardboard display package as well. I guess that’s inflation for you.